Save Your Family First offered Wednesdays

Among the downtown Oxnard storefronts, a weekly gathering is attracting local residents, trying to save their homes. Each Wednesday night, volunteers are working with homeowners facing foreclosures.

The situation is all too common among Ventura County's Latino community which now represents nearly half of all the homeowners countywide who are facing foreclosure, according to Realtors Michael and Stephen Szakos with Cobalt Realty. On average, as many as 1,600 properties a month are going to foreclosure and in November the number spiked to 2,300.

"I am hoping against hope they will help us here," a young Latina mother of two told her husband. The couple stopped making payments on their home more than a year ago and in the last six months their bank went quiet.

"We used to get telephone calls from them every day and letters every week," said the woman. She came to the Save Your Family First foreclosure prevention clinic held at Café on A in Oxnard on a recent Wednesday night. "Now, there's silence and that worries us even more, so tonight I hope someone can tell me what's happened."

The clinic relies on the help of volunteers, like Michael Szakos, a Ventura County Realtor. He and his brother Stephen are helping the distressed homeowners by talking to people at the clinics.

"This community is the epicenter, ground zero, of an economic crisis that is destroying families and unfortunately, the situation is far from over," Michael said.

Stephen also is a real estate professional whose experience as a former law enforcement officer has been an asset.

"What we're seeing is a population that has been repeatedly and deeply preyed upon to the point just getting them to trust us has taken months," Stephen said. "The scams we are uncovering as we meet with these families involving some unscrupulous real estate agents, brokers and even attorneys and lenders is mind boggling. Many of these people have been victimized two or three times and lost tens of thousands of dollars."

Word of the pro bono assistance has spread among the mostly Spanish-speaking Latino community, and families are arriving early to wait for the one-on-one counseling sessions with "Miguel" and "Esteban," as they are now known.

Ventura County is stepping up enforcement of real-estate related fraud and District Attorney Greg Totten has made fighting this type of criminal activity one of his top priorities. A Real-Estate Fraud Unit. headed by Assistant District Attorney Miles Weiss is tackling the problem daily.

"Real estate fraud is bringing to light the tremendous need that exists in our community for more education and knowledge to prevent becoming a victim," Weiss told the audience at a recent town hall meeting held in South Oxnard. "And we need your help reporting the crimes."

For Stephen, the bottom-line is even simpler, "We have to do more and we will. We have to," he said.

For more information about the free Wednesday evening Save Your Family First foreclosure prevention clinics held at Café on A, 438 S. A St. in Oxnard, phone Michael or Stephen Szakos, Cobalt Realty at 888-700-9658.

The Szakos team has a weekly segment on the David Cruz Show weekday mornings on KOXR-AM (910).